KARACHI: In a bid to increase the number of retail investors at the bourse, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has introduced Sahulat Account for people intending to enter the equity market.
According to a statement issued by the PSX on Tuesday, customers can open the Sahulat Account with stockbrokers without submitting any specific evidence of the source of income such as salary slips or bank statements.
“They (retail investors) can open Sahulat Account by only submitting their CNIC/ SNIC and begin investing up to a maximum amount of Rs800,000,” it said.
Potential investors including students, housewives, freshly employed people and others can open the account using online channels.
This is an ideal account for those Pakistani individuals who intend to invest in the stock market but are hesitant due to the tedious conventional account opening process. All licensed brokers of financial securities are offering the Sahulat Account facility.
“In order to remove any kind of ambiguity on part of brokers and their customers, the Pakistan Stock Exchange has already issued a notice with respect to the account opening process for the Sahulat Account,” the bourse said.
As per the process, any individual identified as ‘low risk’ through risk assessment can open a Sahulat Account. Brokers are liable to apply simplified due diligence measures, which include verification of the identity of customers.
Highlighting the utmost convenience offered by the Sahulat Account, PSX Managing Director and CEO Farrukh H Khan stated “the Sahulat Account involves an extremely simplified and straightforward process of account opening.”
Coupled with the recent improvements in online account opening and local KYC (know your customer) sharing, it has become easier for individuals to open a brokerage account and benefit from investing in the stock market.
“The Pakistan Stock Exchange continues its efforts to expand its outreach and become accessible to investors, particularly retail investors, throughout Pakistan,” he said.
“The ease with which investors can open a Sahulat Account is proof of PSX’s efforts to not only provide greater accessibility to individual investors but also increase the number of investors in the stock market.”
“We are now counting on our ecosystem members, the securities brokers, to leverage these developments to facilitate and bring in new investors,” the PSX MD said.
